Light but steady crowds reported at one Missouri City polling location

DIANE TEZENOdtezeno@hcnonline.com

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, March 3, 2008

Crowds at a polling location at Hunters Glen Elementary School in Missouri City have been described as “light but steady” since the doors opened at 7 a.m., said an onsite election worker.

Several voters took time to share their thoughts on the election, including fourth-grade teacher Daphne Sewell, a resident of Chasewood Meadows.

“Barack and Hillary have so many close views, I decided I wanted to make my vote count,” said Sewell.

A Barack supporter, Sewell added, “I think he will be able to work with the Republicans in Congress to impact various issues including the gas prices, the resident alien situation and the war in Iraq.”

The Hunters Glen Elementary School teacher said she believes Barack will have an impact in getting American soldiers to come home sooner.

“You know there was always the conversation when we were growing up on ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ and you would always hear a little boy or girl say ‘I want to be president.’ So yesterday is now today and now we have a chance to not only vote for a black president but for a woman,” said Ford.

“That is why I am apart of this, because this is history, and I wanted my vote heard.” said Ford, who cast her vote for Obama.

“I believe that if we unite just like he says as a people we can make a change,” she added.

Randy Victorian, a 22-year resident of Missouri City, said that he votes every year, and he has always voted, but came out this year because “it is time for a change.”

“I think that people that don’t vote need to be packed up and sent out of the country because too many things have happened for people to have the right to vote and if you don’t exercise your right to vote, you shouldn’t have anything to say,” said Victorian.

A local truck driver, Victorian said he paid .85 cents a gallon for diesel in 2000 and “today I pay $3.56 for diesel” and believes Obama will have an impact in helping lower gas prices.

“It doesn’t cost much to make diesel, so charging $3.56 a gallon for something that costs .25 cent a gallon to make that just means that all of your buddies are coming up, what about the rest of us that go to work every day,” added the Hunters Glen III resident.

Another local resident, Theresa Grayson, a music teacher at Hunters Glen Elementary, called the election “so important” and said she hoped that everyone goes out and votes today.

Grayson had not yet voted, and is still undecided, but will make her decision by this evening, she said.

The elementary school teacher also said that she has plans to return to her voting place to cast her vote in the caucus.